High-quality Motions Can Now Be Applied to FBIK Control Rigs, Improving 3D Character Animation Processes for Maya Users

SAN FRANCISCO, July 7 — (PRNewswire) — 3D character animation service
Mixamo Inc. today announced more seamless support of Autodesk Maya 2011 software Full Body Inverse Kinematics (FBIK) Control Rigs, furthering its leadership in the character animation space.

Using an FBIK rig based on Autodesk HumanIK technology, Maya software users can now apply any animation in Mixamo's online collection directly onto their FBIK control rigs. Consequently, Maya FBIK users can animate their characters more efficiently than previously possible. Furthermore, because the control rig is preserved, users can make additional keyframe adjustments to the applied animations. With these advancements, Mixamo can help to significantly reduce the time it takes to create high quality animations using Maya software.

"We are seeing more casual and mobile game developers move from a 2D to a 3D pipeline with Autodesk Maya software, as a way to differentiate their games in an increasingly crowded market," said Marc Stevens, Autodesk vice president, Games. "Mixamo's support for Maya FBIK control rigs will be especially valuable to these developers. It helps to simplify the animation process and makes quality animation more attainable for smaller game development teams working with tighter budgets and on shorter deadlines."

Mixamo provides animators, game artists, and 3D professionals an improved character animation pipeline that fits seamlessly into their existing 3D projects. Users simply upload their own FBIK-rigged character to Mixamo and select and customize animations from an extensive production-quality collection, which are then automatically applied onto their character. Finally, users can download the animations and import back into their Maya scenes. This improved workflow results in significant time and cost savings.

"Mixamo is the first and only online service that offers Maya FBIK rig users the capability to apply animations directly to their control rigs automatically, and also to customize these motions in real-time," explains Mixamo Co-founder and CTO, Stefano Corazza. "Mixamo's vision is to make the lives of 3D artists and developers easier by seamlessly supporting the best 3D pipelines and software tools in the industry. Mixamo already supports the Autodesk 3ds Max Biped System, so it was a natural step to support the Maya FBIK Control Rig System as well."

The Mixamo online service leverages the freely available Autodesk Maya FBX plug-in, and can be used with Autodesk Maya 2008 or later. For general information, please visit
www.mixamo.com.

Mixamo Inc. is a Silicon Valley, VC-funded company founded by 3D pioneers
Stefano Corazza, CTO, and
Nazim Kareemi, CEO. Based on research from Stanford University's BioMotion lab, Mixamo offers the first online 3D character animation service that provides 3D game developers the power to customize and create professional-quality character animations at unprecedented speeds. Mixamo currently employs a team of outstanding computer vision experts, 3D animators, software engineers and serial entrepreneurs from around the world.